Michael Apted, Aging With The '7 Up' Crew

Jackie, Lynn and Sue — pictured here at age 7 — are three of the children featured in the landmark 1964 documentary 7 Up. The series returns this year with 56 Up, checking in with a group of 14 men and women whose lives have been documented since they were kids.

Every seven years since 1964, in what's known as the Up series, Granada Television has caught us up on the lives of 14 everyday people. The subjects of the documentary series were 7 years old when it began; in the latest installment, 56 Up, they are well into middle age.

The original idea behind the series was to examine the realities of the British class system at a time when the culture was experiencing extraordinary upheaval.

"We weren't interested in the personalities so much," says Michael Apted, who was a researcher on the original episode and has directed all the subsequent ones. "We needed children ... who weren't fazed by us, who could speak to us, but we weren't looking for any particular characteristics. We were just interested in their backgrounds.

"[T]he idea was that we would get some 7-year-old children from different backgrounds — from rich backgrounds, from poor backgrounds, from rural backgrounds ... and have them talk about their lives ... and see whether that told us anything. And of course it did, because it was both very funny and also chilling, showing that, in fact, the class system was very active, and that people in certain backgrounds had a real vision of their future, and others really didn't know what day it was."

The breadth of a project like this inevitably translates into a great deal of intimacy between the subjects and the audience. These people have repeatedly shared with millions of strangers some of their most private thoughts on screen. It's not an easy exercise, as one of the subjects — Nick Hitchon — tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

Hitchon never watches the films; they make him deeply uncomfortable. While he is happy and willing to be a part of the project because he thinks it's an important exploration of life, "that doesn't change the fact that it's kind of terrifying at times."

The intimacy the audience has come to feel for the subjects of the Up series is inevitably even greater for Apted, for whom these people have become not just subjects, but friends. He was 22 when they were 7 — but the age difference has long since ceased to matter, he says.

Interview Highlights

Hitchon on why he doesn't watch the Up films

"I don't like the sound of my own voice. I think I look ridiculous, and I just am uncomfortable. ... If I say that I am uncomfortable with this, it doesn't mean that I don't like the project, and it doesn't mean that I am mad at Michael, but I am deeply uncomfortable doing the interviews. I pretend while I'm being interviewed that it's just a chat. I pretend to myself that nobody else is watching, and I don't want that particular bubble burst."

Hitchon on whether he feels pressure to demonstrate positive change in his life every seven years

"Actually, no. Some of the people involved do feel that way. I never have. You see, I've been insulated from that because I've always been portrayed as somebody who started out quite disadvantaged, so anything that I did was always, 'Oh, look how clever he was,' you know. 'He came from a background where it was going to be hard for him to get up in the morning.' So, you know, I always look good."

Apted on what this experience has been like for him

"What can I say? I mean, it's the favorite thing I've ever done, the thing I'm most proud of. It's nerve-wracking, because you think you're always going to blow it and you'll wreck the whole thing. It seems fragile, and I've learned a lot of lessons about it. I've made mistakes on it and had to correct those mistakes. You know, particularly I got into a situation, I think, early on where I became judgmental about people — that if they didn't agree with my standards of success, failure, happiness, whatever, then I would feel they were the lesser for it. And also I try to play God. I try to predict what might happen to people, and sort of set it all up for that. And I did that, and that was an embarrassing mistake. And I think what I've learned all the way through is the less I do, the better."

Apted on what surprised him about 56 Up

"That people seemed happy. I mean, I thought they'd be getting depressed, worried about age, very worried about the economic climate, looking back on their lives, maybe, sometimes with regret. But no. ... What was interesting to me was that a lot of them had found a real kind of comfort in their families and extended families. I was of the belief in my life that you can't have everything.

"I have pursued a career. I was ambitious, and I paid a price for it. I wasn't as good a father or a husband as I should have been, and sometimes I thought, 'Well, maybe that's my way and maybe that's the right way.' But then I saw the payoff, that people who'd put their energies into their families, and their loyalties into their families, that at this age — in their mid-50s, you know — that they got real pleasure and power from it."

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Transcript

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross. You know the sensation of looking back at photos or videos of yourself over the years and seeing how you've changed? Imagine getting that kind of feeling by watching movies made, over the years, of people you don't know. The documentaries known as the "Up Series" have that affect on many people.

The series began in 1964, when Grenada TV in England broadcast the documentary film "Seven Up!" about the lives of 14 children who were seven years old and from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Every seven years since then, filmmakers have returned to the people from the original film to document how those lives have changed.

The new edition, the eighth in the series, is called "56 Up" and catches up with its subjects at the age of 56. It's now out on DVD.

Our guest Michael Apted was a researcher on "Seven Up!" and has directed all the subsequent "Up" films. Apted is British and lives in America. He's directed many fiction films, including "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Gorky Park," "Gorillas In the Mist" and the James Bond film "The World is Not Enough."

Terry Gross spoke to Michael Apted last February.

MICHAEL APTED: The idea of the film was to examine the British class system in 1963, '64, to see whether it was changing, see if it was reflecting the very cultural upheavals that were going up in the United Kingdom from the Beatles onwards. So instead of getting professionals in to talk about it, the idea was that we would get seven-year-old children from different backgrounds - from rich backgrounds, from poor backgrounds, from rural backgrounds like Nick Hitchon, from people who were removed from their parents, to get within about 14 children and have them talk about their lives, their ambitions, their dreams and whatever, and see whether that told us anything.

And of course it did, because it was both very funny and also chilling. Showing that, in fact, the class system was very active and that people in certain backgrounds had a real vision of their future, and others really didn't know what day it was. And so, you know, it made that point, and then the rest is history.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

So this was supposed to be just a one-shot, and then you stepped in, and you wanted to do another one and eventually make it a series. Why did you want to do that?

APTED: Well, I wish what you said was true because then I could claim credit for it. But no, the film went out. It was a huge success. And it was funny and chilling. And it took us five years before someone actually piped up and said, well, why don't we go back and see what happened to them? And we all thought oh, that might be good.

So we did go back. It wasn't a very interesting film because they were monosyllabic, spotty and just general teenagers, but, you know, you could see the beginnings of a great idea. We all got behind it, and we decided let's keep going back as long as we could and let this thing grow and see what happens to it.

GROSS: So what's it been like for you every seven years to drop in on these people's lives and, you know, ask them about the landmark events that have happened in the seven-year interim?

APTED: What can I say? I mean, it's the favorite thing that I've done, the thing that I'm most proud of. It's nerve-wracking because you always think you're going to blow it, and you'll wreck the whole thing. It seems fragile. And I've learned a lot of lessons about it. I've made mistakes on it and had to correct those mistakes.

You know, particularly I got into a situation, I think, early on when I became judgmental about people, that if they didn't agree with my standards of success, failure, happiness, whatever, then, you know, that I would feel that they were lesser for it. And also I tried to play God. I tried to predict what might happen to people and sort of set it all up for that.

And I did that, and that was an embarrassing mistake. And I think what I've learned all the way through is the less I do, the better, that the more I let them speak for themselves, I in a way try and become like a blank slate and start all over again and have a conversation with them about their lives and try not to lead them anywhere I think they should be led and let them do the leading.

GROSS: That's Michael Apted, the director of "56 Up," the latest film in the "Up Series." We'll hear more from him in a few minutes. Nick Hitchon, who has been profiled in all the "Up" films, now lives in the U.S. and is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Here he is in a clip from "56 Up," showing how he responded in earlier films at age seven, 14 and 28 to the question do you have a girlfriend.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "56 UP")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Do you have a girlfriend?

NICK HITCHON: (as child) I don't want to answer that. I don't want to answer those kinds of questions.

(as 28-year-old) I thought that one would come up, because when I was - when I was doing other one, somebody said, what do you think about girls. And I said I don't answer questions like that. Is that the reason you're asking it?

(as an adult) The best answer would be to say that I don't answer questions like that, but, you know, it was what I said when I was seven, and it's still the most sensible. But I mean what about them?

GROSS: Nick, I'm sure you've seen "56 Up" once or more times.

HITCHON: No, I haven't.

GROSS: Excuse me, you haven't?

HITCHON: No, I haven't.

GROSS: Really? That's a statement. Why not?

HITCHON: Oh, it's I mean, I think this is a wonderful project, but it's a profoundly uncomfortable thing for me. I don't willingly watch myself.

GROSS: Because?

HITCHON: It feels to very, very uncomfortable.

GROSS: Is it uncomfortable because you just don't like watching and hearing yourself, or is it uncomfortable because you don't want to see your life played out in front of the camera in seven-year increments?

HITCHON: Both of those things. I don't like the sound of my own voice. I think I look ridiculous. And if I say that I am uncomfortable with this, it doesn't mean that I don't like the project, and it doesn't mean that I am mad at Michael, but I am deeply uncomfortable doing the interviews.

There's something really disturbing about the process for me. Some of it is just the issue that I'm really scared that I'm going to get on there, and I'm going to hurt other people that I care about by something I say. So it's just profoundly worrying to me.

GROSS: Do you also feel a certain pressure that even seven years your life sort of had, like, an incremental change where, like, you've climbed the ladder of success or accomplished something wonderful in your personal life or, you know, found a new measure of happiness or - do you know what I mean - so that you could demonstrate something to yourself and to those of us watching?

HITCHON: Actually, no. I mean, some of the people involved do feel that way. I never have. And you see, I've been insulated from that because I've always been portrayed as somebody who started out quite disadvantaged. So anything that I did was always, you know, oh look how clever he was, you know. He came from a background where it was going to be hard for him to get up in the morning. So, I always look good.

GROSS: Right because you grew up on a farm, you went to a one-room schoolhouse, and now you're a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. So yeah, you've accomplished a lot. So how did you get into this in the first place, considering how uncomfortable you are with the whole project?

HITCHON: Well, I was - hey, as far as I knew, they put a camera in front of me and asked me some questions, and I love to talk to people. So these people were talking to me. I chatted to them perfectly happily.

GROSS: Well, thank you for talking with us.

HITCHON: You're welcome.

GROSS: That was Nick Hitchon, one of the subjects of the documentary "56 Up." Let's get back to my conversation with the director of the "Up Series," Michael Apted.

So you heard what Nick Hitchon had to say about being in the series and how he really respects the series and really likes you, but it's just painful to be a part of it, and it's hard for him to watch it. Does it make you wince at all to hear that?

APTED: No, I don't think so. I mean, he's very willing to be in it. There are others who feel the same as he do, that don't watch it, but it doesn't particularly worry me. I mean, it would worry me if they didn't want to do it, or I was dragging their ankles to the fire and all this sort of stuff.

But no, it doesn't worry me that he feels like that. He's a great contributor and has some of the most, you know, intelligent and interesting things to say about what we're talking about.

GROSS: I'm interesting in hearing some of the ground rules, so to speak, that you've set for the "Up Series." I know, for instance, like you've paid the interviewees in the movie.

APTED: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: Was it that way from the start, or is that something that you instituted in subsequent films?

APTED: I started paying them at 28, you know, when we became, as it were, more international. Once it came to America, the film, and 28 was the first one to be shown in America, you know, then there was sort of some money around in terms of, you know, royalties and things like that. And so, you know, there was that money going around, and we would give them their share of it.

But I also thought they should have a fee for being in it. It was very, very small, but it's increased over the years, not that the films make money, but, you know, I feel they should be paid for it. And so I juggle the budget around, you know, so I can pay them a bit more each time because I think what they do is courageous, and not many people would do it, so why shouldn't they get some material advantages out of it.

GROSS: And when you ask a question, and you know that that question is making the person you're interviewing uncomfortable and maybe pushing them to speak a little more privately than they'd care, how do you balance your desire to be protective of them because they've become people who you care very much about with your desire to get the best film possible, which probably means pushing them a little bit past their comfort zones?

APTED: Yeah, what you have to understand is there's a set of rules when you do longitudinal films. You know, you have to behave yourself, as the director, as the interviewer, because you want them to come back. I mean, if they say they don't want to talk about something, and I ask them the question, and I embarrass them or unsettle them, and then I insist on using it, then they'll never come back.

So I do have these moments. I have moments when, you know, I know there's a question I've got to ask them, and I know there's a question that if I don't ask it, the audience will say why didn't he ask that, and I know that question might be hurtful. Now, to some of them I wouldn't ask it because it would break them down. Others I think are more resilient, and I ask it.

And sometimes they get upset about it, and then we have the discussion about do I use it, or do I not use it. And that, you know, that happens in "56 Up" sort of fairly graphically. And we had this discussion, and, you know, we used it in the film. So it's that sort of process. But it differs from what you do, in a way, because you have me here once, and you can use whatever you want because you probably won't want me back again. But with these people, I want them back.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: Never.

(LAUGHTER)

APTED: No, I'm not being childish, but I want them back, and so, you know, I do have to behave myself.

GROSS: So can you give us an example of something that you actually, you know, talked about whether to use or not, use that was...?

APTED: Yeah, I mean, it was with Tony, the jockey, you know, the - we just, we've had long discussions over the last three or four films about the changing racial profile of the East End of London, which he left and he left because, you know, he regarded it as being invaded by Bangladeshis, you know, by people from particularly Asian communities, and the East End of London has changed dramatically.

You know, and he has had things to say about that. Sometimes I wondered whether he was pushing it too far, what he was saying, and so in "56," I just came out with it and said, you know, you sound to me, Tony, as though you're being racist. And he answered that, and he was very indignant about it and upset about it. And I thought he answered it very well.

And so I put it in the program, and then, you know, he knew I'd put - he asked had I put it in, and I said yes, and he said how is it, and I said, well, I think you should look at it. So he looked it, and he said I don't know what to do. And I said, well, I think you answered it well, that's my opinion. And so he, you know, he took some advice from family and whatever and decided to keep it in.

But that was an example of the process that can go on between us because we all have a commitment to, as it were, staying on the same page.

BIANCULLI: Michael Apted, speaking to Terry Gross last February. More after a break.

This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's conversation with film director Michael Apted recorded last February. He's directed all but one of the series of "Up" documentary films, following the same group of people every seven years of their lives. The latest in the series, "56 Up," is now out on DVD. This excerpt from film recaps how one of the men, Neil Hughes, talked about the possibility of having children, starting with his response at age seven.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "56 UP")

NEIL HUGHES: (as a child) When I get married, I don't want to have any children because they are always doing naughty things and making the whole house untidy.

(as an adult) I always told myself that I would never have children.

APTED: Why?

HUGHES: (as an adult) Because - because - well, because children inherit something from their parents. And even if my was were the most high-spirited and ordinary and normal of people, the child would still stand a very fair chance of being not totally full of happiness because of what he or she will have inherited from me.

GROSS: Do you expect the people in the "Up" series to keep you updated as to where they are so you can find them every seven years? And I'm thinking especially here of Neil, who is somebody who seems to have struggled most of his life with depression and...

APTED: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: ...like really serious depression, and maybe other issues as well. And there was a period - an extended period where he was homeless. And I don't - I don't know how you track down somebody like Neil when they're in that part of their life.

APTED: We did lose track of Neil a bit at 28. And so we did have to try and, you know, get through some piece of bureaucracy to find him. He's always been very willing to do it and he's incredibly articulate, as you know if you've seen them.

GROSS: Mm-hmm.

APTED: But, you know, what a rollercoaster he's had. And it hasn't ended badly. It's not - you know, in his 20s we did think whether we would lose him, literally. But he was, you know, he recovered himself in his early 40s and 42, 49, 56, you know, there's - again there's a sort of solid ground there. But, you know, you get the sense of a very fragile personality, but a very intelligent and articulate man.

GROSS: So do you have to grapple with feelings of responsibility for the people whose lives you're documenting during those periods of their lives when they're in trouble?

APTED: Well, I would, yes, and I have done. Yes. I mean, you know, I've given up any notion of objectivity. I mean, you know, I care about them all if they need help and I can help or they need advice and I can give it, then certainly I do. Yes, I don't shut myself off and say, look, I'm a documentarian here and I have to be objective, so please be quiet and I'll see you in seven years. It can't exist like that.

GROSS: Are you saying there are times you actually like helped people out?

APTED: Yeah. Sure.

GROSS: What kinds of things - if don't mind my asking - and if you do, that's fine.

APTED: No, I don't mind. I mean I've lent money to one or two of them if they've needed it and they've always paid it back. But, you know, if they're in trouble with stuff, I've always been prepared to help. And, you know, on a brighter side, a cheerful side, I mean if people come out to California, they come and stay with me. Bruce was here this summer with his wife and two kids.

And Nick's been out with his son and stayed with me. And I love all that. And if I have a movie opening in London, I always, you know, hire a theater and invite them all and their neighbors and friends to show it. It's great for me to be able to do something for them without me asking for stuff in return. I mean I'm always the supplicant asking them to do things, and it's nice when I can do things for them.

GROSS: You started "7 Up" long before reality television.

APTED: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: And now in the area of reality television, many of the people in those shows are there because they have outsize personalities. They're willing to do things that are ridiculous or shameless even, and are willing to be ridiculed because that's how a lot of people watch reality TV, to ridicule the people who are in it. Do you find ever that people are watching your "Up" series in the spirit of reality TV, which is not the spirit that the movies are intended to be in?

APTED: I honestly don't think so. I mean, it was a big issue for us, especially when we did "49 Up," because reality television has really got a grip of - in British television. So my participants are saying are we another cheesy reality show? And if so, why are we being paid tons of money like "American Idol"? And I had to try to explain what I perceived was the difference between a reality and the documentary.

With the reality they take people out of their comfort zone, out of their homes, as it were, and put them into other situations. And sometimes that's very interesting and rewarding; sometimes it's cruel and unusual. What we try and do is in a sense every seven years get a - as truthful as we can - snapshot of what these people's lives are.

And we are not driven, you know, by having to have high drama. This is like a Victorian novel when characters move half an inch every seven years. But since it's all so familiar to us, we're tracking that, and in the end that's much more dramatic than watching, you know, cops and robbers or whatever, because it's something you really relate to.

So, you know, I don't feel I have to beef it up like reality. I don't feel I have to compete with reality because in another way I think this series of films exists on a different plane from reality, and not an unpopular plane. I mean, we do very well in terms of crass, you know, numbers in business and all this kind of stuff.

GROSS: Michael Apted, thank you so much for talking with us. And congratulations on yet another in the series of "Up" movies.

APTED: Well, thanks. Nice to talk to you.

BIANCULLI: Michael Apted speaking to Terry Gross last February. His latest film in the "7-Up" series of biographical documentaries, "56-Up," is now out on DVD. Coming up, film critic David Edelstein reviews the new Woody Allen movie "Blue Jasmine." This is FRESH AIR.